Bush Farm Campsite

Most kids have some pretty wild ideas about what they want to do when they grow up – and some of them just can’t wait. Take 12-year-old Sophie and her 13-year-old sister, Rosy, who wanted to start a campsite on the family farm. Instead of fobbing these two entrepreneurial kids off with the standard: “That’s nice dear”, their parents embraced the idea and very soon their wild idea became a sold-out-for-summer wild campsite in Cornwall.

Opened for the first time in August 2020, Bush Farm Wild Camping’s 20 pitches pretty much sold out on their first day of advertising. So high was the demand that they have decided to add more facilities and more pitches for 2021 (watch this space). But don’t worry, whether there are 20 or 40 pitches, this place will never be crowded. Campers are essentially let loose on the 200-acre farm with a map and the sensible advice to leave at least 50 yards between you and the next tent. It’s a far cry from the neat rows of pitches on some of Cornwall’s more traditional campsites and, in fact, the words “campsite” and “pitches” don’t sum up exactly what’s going on here.

So what is going on at this most unusual of farms? Formerly a cattle farm, the Renfree family decided to rewild their land at the beginning of 2020. They have planted 100 acres of wildflower meadows and 20 acres of crops which will be harvested only by the birds they attract. It’s a conservation and biodiversity project that sits well with the low key, off grid camping that’s now on offer. Facilities are simple: a couple of toilets and a couple of showers with a sink for washing up in the less-than-pretty yard area at the entrance of the campsite (don’t let that fool you on arrival). Campfires are allowed in off-ground fire pits and Sophie and Rosy will sell you some recycled wood for your fire – as long as it’s not a school day.

But the facilities are not what wows campers here; it’s perhaps more the lack of them. You can pitch up on the hill, down by the river or in amongst the trees. You could spend your whole holiday here but that would be to ignore the other thing that drove the camping bonanza of 2020; the location. Situated just over the Devon-Cornwall border, Bush Farm is about as easily reachable as Cornish campsites get. It’s less than 15 miles from Plymouth and the same distance from the lovely beach at Whitsand Bay and the harbour town of Looe. For families with kids, the Amazing Cornish Maize Maze pops up just down the road in summer season. If your kids have an ounce of the can-do attitude of the Renfree kids they’ll make short work of the maze but don’t forget there’s a wilder chance to get lost back on Bush Farm.